Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Thomas Bailey Aldrichwas an American writer, poet, critic, and editor. He is notable for his long editorship of The Atlantic Monthly, during which he published works by Charles Chesnutt and others. He was also known for his semi-autobiographical book The Story of a Bad Boy, and for his poetry, which included "The Unguarded Gates"...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth11 November 1836
CountryUnited States of America
vocabulary age next
What is slang in one age sometimes goes into the vocabulary of the purist in the next.
sweet garden white
I like not lady-slippers, Nor yet the sweet-pea blossoms, Nor yet the flaky roses, Red or white as snow; I like the chaliced lilies, The heavy Eastern lilies, The gorgeous tiger-lilies, That in our garden grow.
eye night wings
Day is a snow-white Dove of heaven That from the East glad message brings. Night is a stealthy, evil Raven, Wrapped to the eyes in his black wings.
men gold possession
The possession of gold has ruined fewer men than the lack of it.
soul immortal-soul immortal
What is a day to an immortal soul! A breath, no more.
letting-go kings war
My mind lets go a thousand things, Like dates of wars and deaths of kings
girl light color
The young girl in my story is to be as sensitive to praise as a prism is to light. Whenever anybody praises her she breaks into colors.
laughing optimism joy
This one sits shivering in Fortune's smile, taking his joy with bated, doubtful breath. This other, gnawed by hunger, all the while laughs in the teeth of Death.
life harps
O harp of life, so speedily unstrung!
cutting dust half
Great thoughts in crude, unshapely verse set forth lose half their preciousness, and ever must, unless the diamond with its own rich dust be cut and polished, it seems little worth.
pain destiny chains-that-bind
A glance, a word -- and joy or pain befalls.... How slight the links are in the chain that binds us to our destiny!
dark moon water
Up from the dark the moon begins to creep; and now a pallid, haggard face lifts she above the water-line: thus from the deep a drowned body rises solemnly.
men age middle
At the beginning of the twentieth century barbarism can throw off its gentle disguise, and burn a man at the stake as complacently as in the Middle Ages.
forever speak affair
Shakespeare is forever coming into our affairs -- putting in his oar, so to speak -- with some pat word or sentence.